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All posts by Dianne Provenzano

It’s all about the backlinks… See below for direct links to 25 directory sites!

What are Backlinks?

Backlinks are any inbound link to your website from another site. They are valuable since search engines reward websites that other sites link to with higher organic positions on search results pages. Since most Internet searchers look for organic results on the first page, a backlink strategy is essential.

Which links are important?

The most valuable links come from high-ranking websites, as determined by the search engines, like Google. Not surprisingly, these search engines provide their own business directories, so make sure your business website is listed on all of them (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.). Don’t forget local directories since they’ll provide SEO lift within that geographic region. These can include local chambers of commerce and newspaper directories (here’s a link to the IJ’s). There are also specialty sites for events, restaurants, hotels, medical practitioners, contractors, etc.

According to Google’s Matt Cutts, backlinks are still a very important factor in the search engine’s algorithm. In fact, Google has tried removing that criteria in search engine tests but found that the results derived from those searches were substantially poorer. So the backlink criteria is not going anywhere anytime soon.

So how do you build backlinks?

There are many ways to get inbound links to your website. But for today’s purposes, we’re going to focus on the most common way which is through online directories. There are some paid services like YEXT that will place your listing on multiple online directories and allow you to manage them from one portal. Other SEO agencies can offer custom strategies to build out content and links on a whole host of popular and proprietary sites. But beware of any company offering to get you at the top of the organic search results page right away. Getting there takes time and dedication. Disreputable SEO companies may use “black hat” techniques to build SEO for their clients quickly. But when Google catches wind of it, it’s going to be your site that is banned.

So the safest way to build your SEO using white hat tactics is to claim your business listing on as many reputable online business directories as you can find. The good part is, you don’t have to be web genius to do it. It just takes a little time and patience. Remember, it’s these links that will help search engine algorithms determine whether your site is worthy of showing on a search results page.

To get you started, we put together a list of 25 popular online business directories starting with the top five in Marin. Some are free while others charge a nominal fee. It’s usually a pretty simple process to add your information. In some cases you may start by doing a search for your business. Then you’ll be prompted to either claim, edit or submit a new listing.

Remember, the key purpose is to add links back to your website. The more, the better. Don’t get distracted setting up accounts or think you’re done once you’ve updated your business address or uploaded a logo. Make sure that you add your website URL or multiple URL’s whenever possible. Building backlinks can be time consuming but you will be improving your SEO with each business listing. And when the search engines come looking for you, you’re going to look great.

In our many years of managing digital campaigns for small businesses, we’ve seen a lot of websites. Everything from a single splash page to multi-page responsive design sites. It’s kind of the wild west out there and we’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly. The use of Flash media is prolific among small service companies along with audio files that launch as soon as you land on the page. These once snazzy features now cause more problems than they’re worth. But despite all that, the key question is, “Does it work?”

Each business has unique goals and challenges but one thing they all must have is an attractive, functioning website that’s SEO and mobile optimized. A website is mandatory for businesses and is the foundation of any digital marketing campaign. Your site can either make or break a potential customer’s perception of you and your business.

There are many factors that go into creating a great website. It shouldn’t just look nice but also must be easy to navigate, easy to find key information, be mobile optimized and have good onsite and offsite SEO in place so search engines can find it.

We run website audit reports for our clients to get a sense of what we are working with. Then we run reports again after the tactics we put in place have run a while to check the progress. Our auditing system looks at website formatting, SEO, page rank, backlinks, mobile, social and local visibility and provides a score of between 1-100. We rarely see websites that rank over 80 and have never seen one that ranks 90 or above. If there is a site out there that scores that high, I’d love to know their secrets.

Using our awesome website grading tool, we decided to take a look at some of our client’s top scoring websites to see who’s really got it going on. Then we looked for similar local websites and ran audits on those sites as well. Interestingly, some of the sites we thought would score well just by looking at them did not. While others that just looked “ok” scored very well. Just goes to show you that it’s all about what’s on the inside that counts.

The following local Marin business websites all scored a minimum of 70 points. Most are in the high 70s and a couple of low 80s too. Many of these websites are mobile optimized which provides major points. You may also see social media sharing links, the phone number and address featured prominently on the home page and/or a blog. These are a few visible features that improve a website and count big in the scoring process.

Below is our list of the Top 20 Small Business Websites in Marin. They aren’t perfect, but then again, we haven’t seen any sites that score over 90. What makes these sites work is that their owners have succeeded in creating a user friendly website and taken the time to build their SEO and social presence. This has paid off with high audit scores and more importantly, happy website visitors and search engines. Check out the links below to see if you agree.

Everyone talks about what to do and NOT do in digital marketing these days (including me.) We are bombarded daily with what NOT to do in your email, social media and mobile marketing campaigns. Somehow the “cool” kids always get it right though. Because we also see articles like “10 Big Brands Getting (insert marketing tactic here) Right.” Note that they are always “big brands.” So what does that tell us? That big brands are cooler? Hipper? Or just have bigger budgets? I think creativity and perfect execution have more to do with having the money and resources to hire creative agencies than being cool themselves. Meanwhile, small businesses are trying to make their digital marketing strategies work with a shoestring budget and a person and a half. Compared to the super cool big brands, SMBs are pretty much the “dorks” of the digital marketing world. I mean that affectionately of course. But small businesses often find themselves trying, and struggling, to keep up and fit in online. Often getting lost in the shadows of their big brand competitors. So it’s like the “cool” kids versus “dorks.”

But, as dozens of 80’s teenage comedies have taught us, dorks can ultimately triumph. Whether it’s the nerds in Revenge of the Nerds or Molly Ringwald in Pretty in Pink, the misfits always find a way to succeed. And why? Because dorks have heart. They express their true natures and become accepted, loved and triumphant. It’s always their uniqueness that helps them win in the end.

So how does a small business compete with Mr. and Mrs. Big Brand in digital marketing? If you ask me, I’d say to go full Molly Ringwald in Pretty in Pink. By that I mean, be yourself. Be authentic in your digital presence. Embrace what makes you unique and show it off. Promote your values. Promote community. Promote your commitment to your customers. Point out everything that makes you different than your big brand competitors. Take these messages and saturate your local market. Use digital display to target just your specific audience. Use your own customers to find new ones just like them. Use your testimonials in your campaigns and amplify your word of mouth marketing. It’s all doable. And affordable if you keep it local.

Your hyper local campaign, full of positive authenticity, is much more likely to grab attention than another big brand banner ad or email. Your campaign will have the potential to make your business someone’s latest discovery. People like to share their ‘local finds’ with their friends and family. And that, my friends, will make your business ultra cool.

You get the picture. Creativity doesn’t have to be bought at an agency. YOU are creative. That’s why you got into business or marketing in the first place, isn’t it? Use it to express your brand in an authentic manner and put that message in front of your potential customers within your target market. And do it consistently. Follow up with retargeting, email and social media. Build your brand locally – over time. Before you know it, you’ll be the “cool” one. Customers will be following you on Facebook and Tweeting out reviews telling their friends just how awesome your business is. Remember, SMBs have an advantage that big brands don’t. You are small and you have heart. And 80’s teen comedies show us that no matter who you are, you can always win over the audience as long as you’ve got heart.

Who’s your audience? We help SMBs find their local voice and their local audience. Promoting your business to your community has never stopped being important. Only the means by which to do it has changed.

The buying and selling of online banner advertising has evolved greatly over the last ten years. And premium inventory is everyone’s goal. Advertisers want premium inventory and publishers want to sell it. But what is “premium inventory” and where can small businesses get it?

I like to think of premium inventory as ad space where you have the best chance of getting clicks. And to get clicks you need both a large volume of impressions and an engaged, interested audience made up of your best prospects. High Volume + High Interest = Premium Inventory. Most online publishers consider their own ad inventory as “premium” because they have a dedicated audience built around their particular content. But not all online publishers have large audiences. Other national websites have lots of traffic but their audiences are demographically and geographically diverse. So not everyone who visits those sites is going to be your best prospect. So if you are a small business looking for premium ad inventory you need to look for opportunities that provide both high traffic and impressions as well as an audience made up of your best prospects.

High Volume + High Interest = Premium Inventory.

One way to find your best prospects is to seek out your audience on niche websites and online communities. For example, if you are a sporting goods store and want to reach an audience of fly fishing enthusiasts then you might consider ads on a small, fly fishing news website. The audience is perfect! The interest is high but what about volume? How many of those users are in your area? Sometimes it’s possible to make up for a small audience by buying a large number of impressions to dominate the website but it’s risky. Unless you sell your products online, you’re not likely to see much impact with this strategy.

The other way to find premium audiences is with audience segmentation or ad targeting. Ad networks and exchanges allow you to find people that match your target demographic wherever they may appear on the web. If you are looking for wealthy, Hispanic women within 50 miles of your store, a digital ad buy on an exchange network can be a great way to find your local audience. Your ad could appear on any number of websites. If some of those are low-traffic sites, it’s no big deal because you’re buying impressions across multiple sites. Anything from large sites like Huffington Post or CNN to a neighbors blog. If your best prospects are there, your ad can be too. But the tighter your segmentation, the fewer impressions you’ll get. So if there aren’t that many wealthy, Hispanic women who live within 50 miles of your store in that ad network, your ad will not have the volume of impressions needed to have an impact. Network ad buys often combine highly segmented impressions with broader audiences so you can make up for that low volume. But the increased volume of users are not comprised of your best prospects. While this is a valid strategy and it does boost CTR’s, it doesn’t count as premium inventory. Remember you need both a high volume of impressions served to only your best prospects to really be premium inventory.

For most local retail and service businesses premium ad inventory is not really that complicated. Unless you sell online, you already know one thing. Your customers are going to be from the local, geographic area you serve. 100% of your customers are local, right? So premium inventory for a local business is going to be any website with a large, local audience. What are the most popular websites in your market? Any site that is both popular (high volume) and serves the local community (high interest) can offer a premium audience for a main street business. In most communities, local news websites generally offer some of the highest traffic and engaged online audiences available to local and regional advertisers.

Whether it’s TV, radio or traditional newspaper websites, the people that use these websites are in your area and they are engaged and looking for local information. Click through rates for local advertisers on local news sites regularly show better results than network ad buys. We see the stats every day. The median CTR on our own news site, marinij.com, is 0.14%, which is above the national average of 0.02% on network exchange buys. We’ve seen some as high as 2.05% on some larger ad units – particularly mobile interstitials (full page ads that appear between article pages). Aside from having more interesting ad units, I suspect the reason that local news websites perform so much better for local advertisers may be the fact that they’ve got both ingredients in the secret formula for premium inventory. High Volume + High Interest. In this case, the interest is simply “local”. Small business customers are primarily local residents. And a very large number of local residents read local news websites. Pretty simple.

Another reason these audiences can be considered premium is the fact that statistically, news readers are often college educated, employed and more affluent than the average online user. These same smart, employed, wealthy people also shop and hire services in their communities. And while you can target these same people on network exchanges, they won’t be available in large volumes. Local users trust their local media outlets which leads to trust in those who advertise on their websites.

As the digital advertising landscape continues to evolve, we’ll see premium inventory evolve as well. Right now, some local newspaper sites are taking premium inventory to a whole new level. Until recently, local newspaper.com websites could only segment their premium audience with special placements on pages for sports, food, entertainment or news channels. But the world of audience targeting is now becoming available to newspaper sites as well. In addition to the local, affluent, engaged audiences found on newspaper websites, advertisers can now supplement them with demographic, geographic and behaviorial segments to reach their best prospects.

Premium digital ad inventory is different for every business. And for some companies it may not exist at all. But the good news is that premium inventory does exist for locally owned small businesses. And it won’t be hard to find as long as local news media websites continue to serve and grow their online audiences.

If you use the internet at all, you’ve probably noticed an increase in video advertising lately. It pops up just about everywhere a standard banner ad might appear in addition to spots before published commercial and user generated video content. Video ads have been around for a while but new ad units and targeting capabilities have recently become available making them more desirable for advertisers.

eMarketer recently surveyed ad agencies, media companies and advertisers to find out what capabilities are most important to them when it comes to video ads.

These groups overwhelming chose the ability to target their video ads to specific audiences. They also want the ability to buy video programmatically and across multiple screens including TV and video platforms.

With these capabilities in video ad targeting now available, there’s been a sharp increase in their visibility across the web. But for now, the platform is primarily being used by larger brands and purchased at the agency level.

Despite the highly effective nature of online video and the ability to serve those ads to target audiences on multiple screens and platforms, most SMB’s are passing on the opportunity. They often assume that it’s not possible for a small company to do or that it would be outrageously expensive. But that’s not necessarily the case. Local media companies, like ours, offer scaleable programs on sites within a defined market making video ads available to any small business. And usually, the cost is not much more than a standard banner ad campaign.

Plus, the opportunity to reach “unreachable” audiences should be a valid consideration for any small businesses. The stats are in and online video is surpassing TV consumption and online video ads are more effective too.

On average, people streaming video watch ads for 20 seconds with an average completion rate of 87% – eMarketer

Internet video ads have higher impact than TV ads in several categories.

Source: Nielsen/IAB

Digital video is growing among the hard to reach 18-34 year olds as well. In the same Nielsen/IAB study 18-34 year old TV viewers spent an average of 35.6 minutes per day streaming live video online. This was a 4% increase in time spent over one year.

Nevertheless, the challenge for small businesses is often producing the video content itself. SMB’s typically don’t know what or who to put in front of the camera. In these cases, we recommend the help of a professional videographer to help get the creative juices flowing.

Despite the availability of consumer brand high-definition video cameras and editing software, we don’t recommend a “do-it-yourself ” approach for video ads. Producing a professional looking video is harder than you might think. Professional videographers study the medium and offer more than just lighting and camera work. Creative videographers can also offer visual concepts, scripting and directing to make it all work together on screen. Plus they have the technical know-how to edit and prepare proper screen resolutions, aspect ratios, graphics and file types. These things can make a big difference in how your video displays on various devices. An investment in a professional marketing video (or series of videos) can serve a small business for years to come.

Another often overlooked option for SMB’s is to repurpose a local cable ad that is already “in the can.” These TV spots are already cut to 15 or 30 seconds and are formatted for digital platforms. Most local cable companies provide copies of advertiser spots upon request.

There’s no reason a small business has to pass on the golden opportunity that targeted video ads offer. With the ever-growing consumption of online video and effectiveness of video ad units, a properly scaled and targeted video ad campaign can drive immediate and ongoing ROI for the brave small business that takes up the challenge.

If you’d like to discuss a scaled online video campaign using the targeting capabilities like the ones listed in the eMarketer list above, drop us a line at info@marinmediasuite.com.

I can hear it now, “How dare you! I put a lot of time and energy into my business website!” Well, that’s probably true. But the question is not how much time you put into building it but how much time you spend maintaining it. Time flies and the web changes very quickly. If you haven’t updated your website lately, you may be guilty of neglect.

We actually see this all the time with SMB’s. Most small businesses don’t have dedicated resources for website management. The key players rightly spend all of their time running the business while the website sits on the back burner. And while it may or may not be hurting you, it’s certainly not helping you either. We like to call this sad state of affairs “Website Neglect Syndrome” or WNS. (I’m making that up but it helps make my point).

Here are the main causes of small business WNS:

You are busy running your business and don’t have time

You forgot about ever having a website

Your web developer fell off the face of the earth

Your website is managed out of a distant corporate office (not your problem)

You have technical difficulties with the site and you’ve just….given up

Some shady SEO company built your site but won’t return your calls

and the coup de gras…… “It’s fine the way it is.”

That last one sends chills up my spine. The set-it-and-forget-it theory just doesn’t work for websites. Your business site should never really be “done”. There are always reasons for continually updating your website. Here are a few:

The Mobile Revolution: Most internet searches are now done on a mobile phone or tablet. If your website was built prior to 2010, it probably doesn’t display very well on a smartphone. Mobile users don’t spend time with content that doesn’t display on their device and will typically move on.

Fresh Content: Search engines look for content updates to make sure your website is one they will show in search results. Continuous updates can improve your SEO and position on search results pages.

User Experience: As online users visit newer, better sites, they will begin to expect a certain level of functionality on all websites. Slow loading, confusing or otherwise poorly functioning features will frustrate users and not represent your business in the best light.

Lead Generation Tools: Believe it or not, many small business websites don’t use a “contact us” fielded form to collect user information. While a phone number and email is still crucial, users expect to give contact information if they are interested in your services. Collecting data using forms is a great way to build a lead database for future marketing and lead nurturing.

Blogging: One of the best ways to refresh the content on your website is by blogging. Frequent articles that position you as an expert in your field can drive more traffic. According to a Hubspot survey, blogging results in a 55% increase in website visitors. If you aren’t doing it, and your competitors are, you’re probably losing some business.

As a marketer myself, I wish I could set up our website and forget it. But it’s just not something you can do if you want to attract and convert business leads. It’s easy to succumb to “Website Neglect Syndrome” but don’t despair. The cure just takes some time and planning. With a little attention and the right resources, you can have a happy, well cared-for and functional business website that drives new business in today’s competitive online space.

If you manage your company’s Facebook page for a small or medium business you may have noticed some changes in your reach lately. Facebook recently began filtering content through a new algorithm which has substantially reduced the reach for the majority of business pages. Some have seen their reach decline as much as 50% over the last year.

The reason Facebook made the change was because they were faced with an overwhelming amount of content and not enough space in the newsfeed to show it all. With all the brands and pages out there posting, there just wasn’t enough time spent in the users newsfeed feed to show every post. So they created an new algorithm to show only the most engaging posts to users while they were logged in.

Many businesses are upset over the fact that Facebook encouraged them to pay for new page likes only to have that reach diminished by the new algorithm. And the only way to reach your fans now is to pay for it. While some businesses have basically quit Facebook in protest like the infamous Eat24 Breakup letter to Facebook, others have just buckled down and starting paying to promote their posts. What’s happening is Facebook is becoming more like traditional media with news surrounded by paid advertising. In the case of Facebook, the “news” is what individual people share about their lives and the “ads” are what companies share about their business. And it all goes into the same newsfeed.

Without the ability to reach your page fans for free, Facebook has suddenly become another cost decision in your marketing budget. How much do you allocate for Facebook advertising and what kind of return can you expect? Are you able to attribute Facebook engagement to sales? Or are you using Facebook to build your brand and engage your customers?

Think about the costs too. If you are a healthy small business with about 1000 customer fans, you might have to pay $100 to boost each post to reach the majority of your fans. And if you post three times a week that’s $300 per week times four weeks for $1,200 a month for Facebook. And what if you post daily? Then you’re looking at $3,000 a month. Will it be worth it? That’s a question only you can answer.

Depending on your motives, you might want to consider putting those advertising dollars somewhere else. If you’re looking for site traffic and lead conversion on your website you may want to consider a targeted digital display campaign with strong call to action. Or even a bulk email campaign to a custom target audience that looks a lot like your Facebook fans. It’s relatively easy to match your Facebook fan demographics and interests with targeted digital ad or email campaigns.

Is Facebook advertising worth it? Well, maybe. As long as people continue to look at Facebook it will continue to have value to marketers. And your cost per impression will be very inexpensive. But now, just like any other media, Facebook is subject to the habits, trends and whims of their audience. Unlike TV, radio and print publications who produce their own original content, Facebook relies on its users and advertisers for content. And if the users and advertisers share inane or uninteresting posts, the audience will stop coming and Facebook will face both declining audiences and lost ad revenue. So it behooves Facebook to take some control over the news feed and show users the best content available. Whether it comes from our friends and family or the businesses we “like”.

So if you decide to keep posting on your Facebook business page and paying to reach your fans, just make sure your posts are original, relevant and engaging. Use photos and links to more great content. Not only will this please the Facebook algorithm but it will make your fans happy too….especially now that you’re paying for it.

If you’d like to learn about our social media management services, contact us at info@marinmediasuite.com or learn more here.

We’re excited to announce that our AdTaxi digital services platform has been named a Google AdWords Premier SMB Partner.

Our parent company, Digital First Media, is the proprietary owner of AdTaxi which is the digital display exchange ad network that we use to serve our local clients.

The Google AdWords Premier SMB Partner designation is recognition of AdTaxi’s high-quality, customer-focused AdWords account management that has powered AdTaxi’s growth to more than 130 cities in the United States, Canada, Europe, Mexico, Israel, and Australia.

“The Google AdWords Premier SMB Partner Program is a great way for small businesses to connect with companies who can help them make the most of their online advertising,” says Ben Wood, Director of Google’s Americas Channel Sales. “Guided by the expertise of our trusted partners like Digital First Media, small- and medium-sized businesses can maximize the value and performance of their campaigns.”

Our clients will receive the benefit of the AdTaxi operations teams working with Google regularly to optimize performance of campaigns.

AdTaxi manages more than 3,500 campaigns each month and supports more than 2,500 account executives across Digital First Media including Marin Media Suite.